How To Upgrade To Ubuntu 16.04 LTS from 15.10
Why Upgrade to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS – Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, codenamed Xenial Xerus, will be the 6th iteration of the world’s most popular Linux distribution. The release date of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS is set for April 21, 2016. With this release, Canonical is making some key changes to the OS.
We are calling Ubuntu 16.04 LTS the best Ubuntu release in years — thanks to the disabled Ubuntu ‘Spyware’ in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. Before we dive deep into the details of this change, let me remind you how Canonical was bashed by Free Software Foundation President Richard Stallman long ago in December 2012. The FOSS stalwart called Ubuntu Linux “spyware” because the operating system’s search feature sent data to Canonical when a user searched the desktop.
The release date of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS is set for April 21, 2016
In the later versions of Ubuntu, Canonical expanded the feature to include the Internet search results as well. “Ubuntu, a widely used and influential GNU/Linux distribution, has installed surveillance code. When the user searches her own local files for a string using the Ubuntu desktop, Ubuntu sends that string to one of Canonical’s servers,” wrote Stallman in his famous blog post.
As a privacy advocate, fossBytes has covered numerous articles on the Microsoft’s controversial spying features in Windows 10. While it’ll be unfair to compare Ubuntu’s online search feature with Windows 10’s constant nagging, we are glad to inform you that Ubuntu has decided to make amends.
With Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, no search data will be sent to Canonical’s servers for third parties like Amazon. The Unity 7 Dash search bar will just show local folders, files, and apps.
Online search in Unity’s dash is disabled in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS – In the current versions of Ubuntu, a wide range of non-identifiable data is sent to Canonical, which is used to provide you contextual results from multiple online services. While anyone can turn off this online search from Ubuntu System Settings, the open source community hasn’t been a great fan of this feature.
Well, if you think you are going to miss this online search functionality, you can enable it in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, the same way you disable it in the current versions. Just go to Ubuntu System Settings > Privacy > Search and Turn the slider ‘On’.
Best Ubuntu 16.04 Features
Talking about one of the biggest Ubuntu 16.04 features, Canonical is dropping the online search for Unity 7 — also called the Ubuntu Spyware — and it’ll be turned off by default. This was being requested by the users from a long time and Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) release will be fulfilling users’ demands.
It’ll be coming with the latest versions of different software like LibreOffice 5.1, Mozilla Firefox 45.0, Mozilla Thunderbird 45.0 with GTK3 integration.
One of the most interesting Ubuntu 16.04 features could the ability to rotate the Unity interface and move the Unity launcher to the bottom of the screen. The team is also planning to drop Ubuntu Software Center for GNOME Software with Ubuntu Software center getting an upgrade.
An interesting Ubuntu 16.04 feature could be the current work being done to bring along Snappy packages to regular Ubuntu flavor, with Unity 7.
In Ubuntu 16.04, Python has been upgraded to the Python 3.5 series. Well, if you have programs in older Python 2, it’ll continue to remain available. However, you are advised to port your code to Python 3. Along the similar lines, Golang has been upgraded to Golang 1.6 series, and gcc-go to the GCC6 branch.
We will also see a new QML-based USB Startup Creator for Ubuntu 16.04. Canonical is also working on a new feature called click lock. With this option, one can click on an item’s icon and move around without the need to keep the button pressed.
However, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) will be launched without disc burning software Brasero and messaging software Empathy.
Talking about the Ubuntu 16.04 features, the open source cloud computing software OpenStack Mitaka are coming in the new version with the new features and more set of commands.
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Xenial Xerus is going to integrate complete support in Mir server display for the latest Vulkan 1.0 specifications. Xenial Xerus is expected to arrive on April 21 and it’ll most likely have two versions — one with X server and Unity 7, and other with Mir and Unity 8.
One of the great Ubuntu 16.04 features could be the integration of the Unity Launcher with the Nautilus file manager. This means that every device icon will only manage the relative windows. The Ubuntu users will now be able to activate session actions from the Unity Dash and perform actions like log out, reboot, suspend, or shut down their machine.
In the list of best Ubuntu 16.04 features, another interesting change is a new setting called “Menus visibility” in the Appearance panel. It comes with two options: Always displayed and Displayed on mouse hovering.
Another great Ubuntu 16.04 feature could be the option to upgrade the firmware straight from the OS.
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS won’t be supporting the proprietary AMD Catalyst graphics for AMD GPUs, commonly known as fglrx driver. Instead, Canonical recommends that Ubuntu users should make a shift towards the open source AMDGU and Radeon alternatives. So, if you are installing Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Xenial Xerus after it’s released on April 21, 2016, you should first run a Live CD and test if your AMD Radeon graphics cards are supported.
The Installation How To
- Open the “Software & Updates” Setting in System Settings.
- Select the 3rd Tab called “Updates”.
- Set the “Notify me of a new Ubuntu version” dropdown menu to “For any new version” if you are using 15.10, set it to “long-term support versions” if you are using 14.04 LTS.
- Press Alt+F2 and type in “update-manager” (without the quotes) into the command box.
- Update Manager should open up and tell you: New distribution release ‘16.04 LTS’ is available.
- Click Upgrade and follow the on-screen instructions.
You can click on the link below for a great illustrated demonstration and instruction from https://omgubuntu.co.uk
